Favourite to win Ballon Dor, according to france football (they award this). https://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Art...es-qui-ont-permis-d-y-voir-plus-clair/1269859
Ultimate respect from Messi, who immediately stops de Paul from starting a chant mocking Brazil 👏pic.twitter.com/orkZXH5LoE— TalkFCB © (@talkfcb_) July 12, 2021 This is amazing - Messi stops De Paul from starting an offensive chant against Brazilians. Sportsmanship trumps everything.
Messi had a phenomenal tournament. Just his 2 dribbling runs vs Colombia and the one against Uruguay, 99.9% of the world’s players can’t do. Forget the goal and assists. At times, he is a victim of his own standards. Had any other player had a similar tournament like him, people would be raving about it for weeks. Ballon D’Or #7 should already be secured. Also, to play the semifinal and final on a hamstring strain, where he knew any sort of acceleration and he would blow his hamstring out. As a player he was already the greatest, but as a leader - this was his crowning moment. Telling Di Maria BEFORE the final saying it was going to be his final. Putting up a picture with Emi that Emi said gave him strength. Tackling, sliding, bloodied. Playing injured. Respecting opponents. It was so worth it.
Heads will explode if he wins it. I guess Chelsea and Italy winning the CL and Euro, respectively, helps too (no real BD contender in these two squads). I see that it isn't even that close: Lionel Messi - 2/1 Harry Kane - 9/2 Kylian Mbappe - 6/1 Robert Lewandowski - 6/1 Cristiano Ronaldo - 8/1 N'Golo Kante - 8/1 Neymar - 9/1 Raheem Sterling - 10/1 I am not sure how Neymar is anything less than 50/1. I mean he scored less than 10 goals this season and won nothing.
By the way, can anyone explain to me what is happening with Messi’s contract? Messi wants to stay, Barca wants him to stay, but La Liga has a wage cap of some sort that prevents Barca from signing him? When is this all supposed to be sorted out?
They just throw some names to make it look good. 90% it is Messi now. He only needs good form in next season and it's done.
I'm pretty sure Messi wanted this talk to wait until after the Copa. So not much was gonna happen over the past month.
We are in trouble staying within the Spain’s FFP limits . We need to off load salaries to decrease the payroll .
So if we are not able to offload the salaries, we can’t sign him? That is quite a problem, no? Who can we sell in the next 15 days?
Another bizarre coincidence between Messi and Ronaldo … they both won their continental title on July 10th by beating the favorite team at their home by 1 x 0. Neither had a real impact on the final itself and you could argue both due to injury . Although I kind of question this Messi hamstring injury story . Would like to know some more details .
There’s a video of Messi v/s Brazil on YouTube that shows him touching his hamstring 5-6 times during the game.
This page has some stats. Not sure if there is discrepancy vs other stats in other sites. https://www.fotmob.com/leagues/44/stats/season/15148/players/won_contest/copa-america - Big chances created Messi is 2nd (6) after Neymar (9). - Key passes per match they are tied at 21 but Neymar played one less game as he skipped the Ecuador game. - Successful dribbles it says Neymar 5.8 per game and Messi 4.9. But Messi with much higher success rate (68% vs 50%). So I guess Neymar attempted more per game.
I can see him being hindered in the final...but against Colombia he did that sprint near the end of the game with the ball. That's kind of hard to do with a pulled hamstring. Either that or these athletes have some magic potion because every time I've pulled my hamstring even a little sprinting just wasn't happening.
Lol you mean CR playing for 5 minutes contributes more than Messi who played the whole game... Legit comparison.
This is stats from Opta. Above maybe from Statsbomb. Anyway, it means Messi is the best player. Ronaldo is pk taker.
From a stats point of view it was obviously great. Looking at goals though, I think it missed something special from open play. The 2 FKs were obviously top notch ... but only 1 open play goal is nothing out of the ordinary specially from a Messi point of view. Assists # is obviously strong specially since all came from open play ... the little turn around chip pass was stupendous. Overall I don't think it was that much different than his performance in 2015 even if the goal/assist stats may look better. 2016 if I remember right he wasn't as good as he was coming in from injury and 2019, except from the game vs Brazil, if I recall he didn't have a great CA. But my memory could be failing me.
Yeah. I thought they were talking about his ankle which is obvious. I can't imagine that it didn't affect his play. But hamstring is another thing. Tough to play with a pulled hamstring unless there are some medical treatments I don't know. Anyways .. hope he is fine for the season ... if he stays of course.
6 chances created yet he had five assists?? That is some clinical Argentina finishing (or seriously flawed stat).
Neymar scored 2 goals but missed 8 big chances. Some finishing. Messi's assists put his teammates in easy position to score.